The Player
Rodriguez is a high-impact defender and former walk-on with outstanding intangibles, production, and tape. He\u2019s the only FBS player since 2005 to have recorded at least 300 career tackles, 10 forced fumbles, five interceptions, and five fumble recoveries. His greatest strength is his ability to take the ball away, and he finished his career with 13 forced fumbles. The timing, accuracy, and violence of his punch stand out.<\/p>\n
In coverage, he reads the quarterback well, tracks the ball naturally, and finishes plays. He intercepted four passes in 2025 and totaled 10 passes defended over the past two seasons, even though he has shorter arms.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez is slippery in the run game and difficult to square up. His change-of-direction ability\u2014evident in his top-ranked three-cone and short shuttle times among linebackers at the combine\u2014shows up on tape when he evades blocks and makes plays in tight spaces. He\u2019s quick to read and react, plays with great effort, and closes well, as backed by a 4.57-second 40-yard dash.<\/p>\n
While he drives through ballcarriers and shows good stopping power, he missed 42 tackles over the past two seasons (per PFF). His short arms and inconsistent angles contribute to those misses, and while he has the upper-body strength to stack blockers, he can get pushed around at times because of his lighter frame.<\/p>\n
A two-time team captain, he started 31 games at Texas Tech after transferring from Virginia, where he spent one season playing multiple positions, including quarterback. Rodriguez put together one of the most decorated seasons in recent memory, winning the Butkus Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Chuck Bednarik Award, and Lombardi Trophy in 2025. He was a unanimous first-team All-American and the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.<\/p>\n
The Draft
Rodriguez elevated himself from a potential day three pick entering the 2025 season to one of the top off-ball linebacker prospects in the class, with top-50 consideration, following a dominant senior year, strong Senior Bowl performance, and impressive combine.<\/p>\n
The Projection
Rodriguez should make an immediate impact on special teams and has the tools to develop into a starter. Demario Davis is a loose comparison from an athletic and developmental standpoint, as he entered the league needing to clean up his tackling and consistency in coverage before becoming one of the NFL\u2019s top linebackers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PlayerRodriguez is a high-impact defender and former walk-on with outstanding intangibles, production, and tape. He\u2019s the only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,22886,125,124],"class_list":["post-245531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins-draft","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}